Vehicle surveillance system

Abstract

A vehicle surveillance system comprising a plurality of digital cameras mounted on a vehicles's interior and exterior for photographing the dashboard, the interior environment of the vehicle and exterior views around the vehicle to eliminate blind spots inherent to the vehicle's mirrors. A monitor mounted on a front panel of the vehicle displays photographed images. A removable image memory saves the photographed image information. A sound memory stores a plurality of predetermined sounds, including voice sounds, a sound detector detects sounds in close proximity to the vehicle, a sound analyzer compares a detected sound to the sounds stored in the sound memory; and an alarm generator generates an audible alarm through a speaker to the exterior of the vehicle when the sound analyzer determines the detected sound corresponds to one of the stored sounds.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A vehicle surveillance system, comprising: 
 a plurality of digital cameras mounted on a vehicles's interior and exterior for photographing a driving information, the interior environment of the vehicle and exterior views around the vehicle to eliminate blind spots inherent to the vehicle's mirrors;    a monitor mounted on a front panel of the vehicle for displaying image information photographed by each digital camera on a screen of said monitor;    a key operator integrated with the monitor and disposed on a front face of said monitor, said key operator being utilized by an occupant of said vehicle for controlling how the image information is displayed on the screen of said monitor and for setting a photographing schedule for the digital cameras;    a system controller for controlling every part of said vehicle surveillance system according to a signal input from said key operator;    a memory, being attachable/detachable with the system controller through a communications port, for sequentially saving the image information photographed by the digital cameras under the control of the system controller;    a power supply, being charged by a car battery, for supplying power to every part of the vehicle surveillance system; and    an operation controller for turning on/off the power supply and every part of the vehicle surveillance system.    
     
     
         2 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , wherein every part of the vehicle surveillance system is connected to said system controller through respective communications ports.  
     
     
         3 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a printer, a keyboard and a mouse connected to said system controller through respective communications ports.    
     
     
         4 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a case, mounted is a predetermined area of said vehicle, in which said power supply, said system controller and said memory are mounted.    
     
     
         5 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a sound memory storing a plurality of predetermined sounds, including voice sounds;    a sound detector for detecting sounds in close proximity to said vehicle;    a sound analyzer for comparing a detected sound to the sounds stored in said sound memory; and    an alarm generator for generating an audible alarm through a speaker to the exterior of said vehicle when said sound analyzer determines the detected sound corresponds to one of said stored sounds.    
     
     
         6 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising: 
 a compact disc player, a digital video disk player and a television receiver each being connected to said system controller for displaying images on the screen of said monitor.    
     
     
         7 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 5 , further comprising: 
 a compact disc player, a digital video disk player and a television receiver each being connected to said system controller for displaying images on the screen of said monitor.    
     
     
         8 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , said system controller including: 
 a charging switch for charging the power supply through the car battery;    a camera operation switch for turning on/off the operation of each digital camera;    a control switch for controlling the operation of the system controller;    a power supply switch for supplying power provided by the power supply to each part of the vehicle surveillance system;    a light emitting diode for indicating an operating status of the system controller; and    a reset switch for initializing the operating status of the system controller.    
     
     
         9 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , said monitor including: 
 a plurality of screens for displaying the images photographed by the digital cameras;    a time display window for displaying date and time of the photographing; and    an information display window for displaying information pertaining to the image photographs of each digital camera using user recognizable letters.    
     
     
         10 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 9 , wherein an image displayed on any one of said screens can be magnified based on a touch screen method.  
     
     
         11 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 9 , said key operator including: 
 a primary button for inverting the images, which have been photographed by each digital camera and displayed;    a secondary button for splitting and inverting the images, which have been photographed by each digital camera and displayed, and    a third button splitting the images, which have been photographed by each digital camera and displayed, into several regions;    a motion tracer button for tracing the motions of the images;    a search button for searching for the image information saved in the memory; and    a setup button for enabling the operator to control the functions of each of the named buttons include in said key operator.    
     
     
         12 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 9 , said setup button being utilized to set channels for the screens to display the image information photographed by each digital camera, to set a display screen color, to set a photographing schedule for every digital camera, to set a photographing speed of the digital cameras, to set a memory recording speed for recording the images photographed by the digital cameras, and to adjust blocks and sensitivities of the images designated through the motion tracer button.  
     
     
         13 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising left and right side mirrors on which two of said digital cameras are mounted, said two digital cameras having a view point towards the rear of said vehicle.  
     
     
         14 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 1 , further comprising 
 at least one of said digital cameras being mounted on an interior portion of the vehicles's roof for photographing areas in front of said vehicle;    at least one of said digital cameras being mounted on the interior portion of the vehicles's roof for photographing areas in back of said vehicle;    at least one of said digital cameras being mounted on an interior portion of the vehicles's roof for photographing a dashboard of said vehicle to photograph said driving information; and    at least one of said digital cameras being mounted on an interior portion of the vehicles's roof for photographing interior areas of said vehicle to photograph said interior environment.    
     
     
         15 . A vehicle surveillance system comprising: 
 a sound memory storing a plurality of predetermined sounds, including voice sounds;    a sound detector for detecting sounds in close proximity to said vehicle;    a sound analyzer for comparing a detected sound to the sounds stored in said sound memory; and    an alarm generator for generating an audible alarm through a speaker to the exterior of said vehicle when said sound analyzer determines the detected sound corresponds to one of said stored sounds.    
     
     
         16 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 15 , further comprising: 
 a plurality of digital cameras mounted on a vehicles's interior and exterior for photographing a driving information, the interior environment of the vehicle and exterior views around the vehicle to eliminate blind spots inherent to the vehicle's mirrors;    a monitor mounted on a front panel of the vehicle for displaying image information photographed by each digital camera on a screen of said monitor;    a key operator integrated with the monitor and disposed on a front face of said monitor, said key operator being utilized by an occupant of said vehicle for controlling how the image information is displayed on the screen of said monitor and for setting a photographing schedule for the digital cameras;    a system controller for controlling every part of said vehicle surveillance system;    an image memory, being attachable/detachable with the system controller through a communications port, for sequentially saving the image information photographed by the digital cameras under the control of the system controller;    a power supply, being charged by a car battery, for supplying power to every part of the vehicle surveillance system; and    an operation controller for turning on/off the power supply and every part of the vehicle surveillance system.    
     
     
         17 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 a compact disc player, a digital video disk player and a television receiver each being connected to said system controller for displaying images on the screen of said monitor.    
     
     
         18 . The vehicle surveillance system as set forth in  claim 16 , further comprising: 
 a printer, a keyboard and a mouse connected to said system controller through respective communications ports.